July 18, 2025

I think Heinlein is the most American of all SF writers and the best story teller too. Others are more lyrical

Some writers are even more firmly in the science / tech end of things. Some excel at philosophy. Others are more adept at character development.

None of them combined those elements as well as Heinlein, and he did it in an American way. He expressed great love for freedom and free-thinking, for the entrepreneurial force strong in Americans and for the grittiness of American culture. I get the impression that he would have been a great hitch--hiker to pick up heading out of California through the dry parts of Nevada and Utah. Equally, he would have been a great guy to have working beside you at a desk in an engineering firm or managing an animation studio. There is a wonderful photo of him with Asimov and L Sprague de Camp while doing engineering for the US WW2 war effort. I get a feeling he would be tough and a bit abrasive but I see him in my mind as having a smile and joy about him more than any other feeling or sensibility.

Perhaps Heinlein's most redeeming quality is that as with Mark Twain (who greatly influenced him as a writer) he loved cats.

July 18, 2025

Musk has a childish (in good and bad senses) fascination with the Red Planet

Red Planet is the name of one of Heinlein's best books. A gripping yarn littered with bits of science and political philosophy through and through. Thoroughly grounded in the best scientific understanding of Mars at the time, he got it right about how the atmosphere was very thin and the climate very cold. True to his strength as a writer, he was very imaginative in weaving that in with well considered aliens and delving into their alien-ness while conveying a sense that humans would still be able to connect.

It was written as the third of his young adult novels 1947-1958 (one a year), and I read it as 5th or 6th grader. I re-read it for the first time in decades a couple of years ago, and I couldn't put it down.

Muck uses a retro 40s/50s imagining of a "pressure suit" and helmet as his avatar sometimes, such as might have been used on Heinlein's 1949 Mars, and consistent with the kind of illustrations in the hardcover. I have no info, but I don't doubt for an instant that he has read Red Planet in his youth. I thought that before the name Grok came up for his AI chat bot.

July 18, 2025

Thanks for the link. The writer is pretty balanced but is harsh on Heinlein's flaws, as he should be.

In recent years it has become a sport to deride Heinlein as some kind of weird extreme loathsome creature we have to deal with. Jeet Heer does a good job of admiringly highlighting at various points aspects of Heinlein's towering imagination, his intellect, his wide-ranging mind. But he also minces no words when needed to point out negatives. For example, he says Farmham's Freehold is an anti-racist novel (very true) that only a Klansman could love (also true, one of my least favourite books of his).

Heinlein is always thought-provoking and well worth the time because he also is a master story teller. It's worth starting with The Moon is a Harsh Mistress or the Future History collection or Time Enough for Love or Red Planet.

July 12, 2025

The charade is wearing thin and people are noticing

This OP is prompted by The Gnome's latest bombast: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220479935 senseandsensibility wrote:

Their rhetoric is getting more extreme by the hour. It's a sign of some desperation and it WON'T help them.

It won't help them because ordinary citizens, who might be low info and inclined to simply trust "the government", ... ordinary citizens will be exposed to the extremity of it more and more. As time goes on, they will increasingly get the impression that the people running the government are over the top, getting bizarre, not making sense, lying.

The regime is a bit desperate because they know they are dropping in the polls, so they want to keep their base and they think that the more extreme they paint the opposition (i.e. us), the more the citizens will rally to their side thinking the US is under attack from ... us. But it will backfire.

Little things like FEMA weak late response begin to be noticed and remembered more.

The charade is wearing thin and becoming more obvious to the people whose adherence is wavering, the people they most desperately are trying to keep away from ... us.

July 7, 2025

It is an in-group cutey nickname. Very few people outside of DU know the Krasnov connection.

Also, I think the Putin puppet theory is oversold and overbought on DU. tRump does what he does for narcissistic personal gain. He really doesn't care about anyone else. It is the simplest and most powerful explanation for his actions. We read all the time on right wing sites that "Democrats are actively working to destroy America because they hate it." Flipping it and saying it on DU is just as nonsensical. tRump probably had Russian help in 2016, and he reveres Putin for his authoritarian power and wealth, so for example he was very toady and puppy-doggy at the famous Helsinki summit.

Never forget two key points: 1) Rs and Ds have the same values: freedom, justice, family, country, and religion or rejection of. Ds add broader communities because they have more empathy. 2) They both act semi-rationally and semi-emotionally but have been trained to view things through very different lenses. Personally I think Ds are less trained, more diverse in view point, and clearer in vision.

tRump does not want to destroy the US. He just doesn't care what gets broken and damaged and who gets injured or killed, especially if they are not rich white people, especially males. He doesn't wake up saying "How can I destroy the US?" He wakes up saying "What can I do for myself today?" He thinks he is saving the US and the world from wokism and communism (and that he deserves to be ten times richer and twice as powerful). Hence his aspirations for the Nobel Peace Prize. But he is primarily very self-centered and not hardly at all introspective and has little or no empathy for others. He is famously transactional.

July 4, 2025

Understand the vast gulf between "gone" and "gone"

There is "gone", as in gone away, gone for some time, gone not sure where, gone but bound to come back sooner or later.

And there is "gone" as in irretrievably, gone never to return, there was a massive brouhaha and words were said and there is no hope.

The United States of America, as in the ideal, the aspirations, and imperfect embodiment almost all citizens love, joined by many people around the world, is gone in some sense to some degree, but is not irretrievable. Don't give up.

To say it is gone never to return is to give up, to not help, to be destructive in the certainty of the negativity. There is a vast gulf between "gone, let's get it back" and "gone no hope".

The defeatists who say it is gone never to return should be clear about that. People who say it is "gone" should be queried to be clear which gone they mean.

July 4, 2025

If it is worth fighting for, it is worth celebrating. It is worth fighting for. So, logically

The United States of America is worth celebrating because it worth fighting for.

You can walk and chew gum at the same time.

Whatever celebration you see fit. Subdued or boisterous. Thoughtful or rowdy. Today is your day. Seize it. Fight for it. Celebrate it.

July 4, 2025

I feel & hurt with you, but you MUST celebrate your wonderful country today

I lived in the US for decades, though I never took out US citizenship and I'm back in Canada for some years now. Us Canadians are being mightily hurt by tRump lunacy, but we know the people of the US of A are hurting too from Republicon cruelty. We love the people of the US even as we loathe the orange regime.

The US of A is still a beautiful country and full of great ideals and wonderful people. The "American idea" is stronger than any regime and will endure and triumph over the stupids and the idiots and the corrupt. There will be hard times until the corner is turned, but the goodness of America is not gone, only suppressed for a while.

I miss all you good people. It will be a while before I can visit the US, but in time we will have you back. Be strong and be of good cheer. Today I will raise a glass of beer in your honour.

June 26, 2025

A centi-millionaire is worth about $10,000+. Term they want is hecta-millionaire: $100 million+

Centimetre is one hundredth of a metre. A hectare (2.47 acres) is 100 ares.

June 26, 2025

Not alone, though not "af"

In a similar vein, modern lazy thinking english is to use "less" everywhere, including those situations where "fewer" is appropriate. Likewise "amount" where "number" is appropriate.

Lazy thinking english:
There were less people at the meeting.
There was a large amount of people succeeding.

Thoughtful english:
There were fewer people at the meeting.
There was a large number of people succeeding.
There were many people succeeding.
There were many more people succeeding this year.

People are countable so "fewer", "number", and "many" apply. Matter is uncountable though measurable, so "less", "amount", and "much" apply.

The apple had less mass than the watermelon.
The amount of sand was the same as the amount of sugar.
There was much more oil than vinegar.